Suddenly So Clear
by VampireQueen21
Summary: A rewrite of the Bronze scene in ‘The I in Team’. What would have happened if Angel had been at the Bronze to get Buffy back?


Title: Suddenly So Clear (One-Shot)

Author: Dez/Jezebel Jinx/VampireQueen21/Angeluslover412 (just depends on what board I'm on)

Rating: Teen

Couple(s): B/A w/ Angelus tendencies, slight B/R (won't be for very long), and X/A

Summary: A rewrite of the Bronze scene in 'The I in Team'. What would have happened if Angel had been at the Bronze to get Buffy back?

Warning: As with so many of the Buffy fics that I'm currently working on, there will be some Riley bashing. I'm not a huge fan of him. So if you like this character you might want to skip this fic. I don't bash him much but there is enough where I felt a warning was needed.

Note: This is a one-shot, I know I say that a lot and I end up writing more parts but this time I mean it, I have too many fics I'm working on anyway to write a sequel.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, so please don't sue.

_Bronze_

It took him months in LA to realize what he should do. He knew that he deeply missed his mate, so much it ached. But after months of not knowing what to do the solution was suddenly clear, it happened practically over night. He needed to get to her, needed to be with her.

That's how he found himself at the darkened club, instinctively knowing his mate would show up sooner rather than later. No sooner had the thought run through his mind, in walked his golden goddess.

She was beautiful.

Beautiful…that was such an understatement. There wasn't a word in the English language that could describe her beauty.

The men walking in behind her hardly crossed his radar. All his attention was focused on her. She reached the table where her friends were waiting. Then he noticed the men stopping at the table as well; a growl he couldn't control came rumbling out causing several patrons to back away from him.

He couldn't wait anymore, now that she's here he was not staying away. His mate glanced quickly around the club.

She could sense him.

As he walked closer, her eyes met his, and suddenly there was no one there but them. He reached the table standing right in front of her.

"Buffy."

"Angel." She spoke in the same breathless question that she always said his name in.

Willow and the other members of the Scooby Gang simply stare at the two lovers. This happened every time they're around each other. The world seemed to fall away and they were lost in their own paradise.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered. Not realizing that she's inching closer to him.

"I needed to see you. Can we talk?" He stared down at her with those smoky eyes that made her want to melt right at his feet.

Buffy nodded her consent. Immediately Angel took her hand linking their fingers together and took her to a darkened corner of the Bronze where the ignored group of friends and Initiative members could hardly see the outline of their closely pressed bodies.

"Umm, who the hell was that guy?" Riley questioned, jealous that Buffy didn't acknowledge him. He thought they were heading toward something.

"That's Angel." Willow shrugged as if Riley should know this, and went back to watching the live band playing at the club.

"And who is that?" Forrest spoke up, curious himself about the mysterious stranger that took away the newest member of the Initiative team.

"Boy, you Initiative boys don't know much about the Buffster do ya? If you did you'd know at least a little something about Angel." Xander took a bite of the energy bar that he brought with him. Willow was right, these do leave a bad after taste in his mouth, but as of right now they were paying the bills…barely.

Willow decided the let the guys know some of the Buffy and Angel saga, if only to let Riley know that as long as Angel was in the picture he had no chance. "Well, Angel is Buffy's ex-boyfriend. But you see he's more than that, they're soul mates, and they know it too."

"If they're "soul mates"," Forrest used air quotes and rolled his eyes at the silly freshman and her notion of love, "then how come they're ex."

"Ya, see Buffy and Angel are…complicated. They know they love each other, but they also couldn't be together. Or that's what Angel thought because he was…" She didn't know how to put this part. While the Initiative knew about Buffy being the Slayer, she doubted the soldiers were ready to know that Angel was a vampire, and Buffy dated him.

From what little she knew about the secret government group was that they were pretty black and white when it came to demons and vampires. There was no middle ground, all demons and vampires were evil and needed to be exterminated or experimented on.

"Basically Dead boy is the complete opposite of Buffy so he left town, for various reasons, but now he's obviously back to get her back. I mean why else would he put himself through the torture of seeing her and not being able to be with her?" He threw away over half of the energy bar not being able to stomach the taste of it anymore.

Xander, only a few months prior had come to terms with Angel in his own way. Over the summer he had grown up and seeing Angel during Thanksgiving woke Xander up completely. Angel loved Buffy and that would never change, same could be said for Buffy. It was made clear to him that someday Angel would be back for Buffy and if he wanted to keep his friend he better keep his mouth shut.

"Dead boy?" Riley frowned in confusion.

"Pet name." Xander covered quickly.

Riley nodded and glances around the club his eyes straying to the spot where Buffy and Angel were. Seconds move to minutes, till almost 15 minutes pass with no one at the table talking to each other.

To Willow and Xander's surprise Cordelia came stalking over to their table with a purpose, what that purpose was they had no clue. Knowing Cordy however the reason would be known shortly.

"Finally I found you guys. Have you seen Angel?"

"Yeah, just a moment ago. Why? What's going on?" Concern was written all over the young witch's expression.

"Nothing's wrong, I was just coming to tell you that, his soul is permanent and he was on the rampage to get out of LA when he found out. I mean he went all grrr on me when I told him to call her first. I thought the soul was supposed to make him more human not more vampy." Cordelia took no notice of the soldiers standing behind her hearing everything she had to say.

"Dead boy's soul is bound?" Xander turned his gaze to the dark corner Angel had taken Buffy too, and it's empty. "They're gone."

"So? If his soul's bound there's nothing for us to worry about. Right?" Willow stopped at the look Cordelia was giving her. "What?"

"Wesley found out some things about Angel's soul. And from what I understand now that his soul is bound, Angelus and Angel have merged. So Angel's still Angel, just with more soulless killer guy aspects."

"Does that mean he's going to hurt Buffy?" Worried about his friend, not even waiting for an answer from Cordelia, Xander started to head out of the club, not sure what he could do but not willing to let Buffy become a chew toy for the undead.

Before he could get to far from the table, Cordelia grabbed his arm and dragged him back. "He won't hurt her Xander. Buffy's his mate, according to Angel when Angelus came out he never wanted to kill Buffy, he was only courting her the only way he knew how."

"How can he consider what he did courting her?" He ground out in disgust.

"Angelus is a soulless vampire, he's not exactly butterflies and flowers Xander." She took a deep breath and began to tell them what Angel had told her 3 weeks before he found his soul permanent. "He sent his love to her through Theresa. Jenny betrayed her so he killed her for Buffy. He came to the hospital with that white rose for Buffy. And when she wasn't giving into his advances he figured he'd destroy the world, because if he couldn't have her no one would."

"But every night it seemed he was trying to kill us. Wouldn't that hurt Buffy? In turn making sure she didn't turn to him?" Xander questioned his ex.

"According to Angel he never tried to kill us not really. Technically what he did was vampire play, he knew killing all of us would hurt Buffy." She agreed with Xander on that. "Why do you think none of us were ever killed? He was playing with us enough to make us scared of him."

Standing there in utter shock, Riley and the rest of the Initiative boys listened to what Buffy's friends had to say about the guy who just took Buffy away. "Wait a minute, that guy that took Buffy away is a vampire? And you let her go with him?" Riley squeaked out his question.

"Who the hell are you and why do you think you matter in this conversation?" Cordelia glared at the tall, blonde haired boy.

"I'm Buffy's boyfriend. And who are you?"

"Cordelia Chase, former May Queen of Sunnydale High School, now working for Buffy's lover. And the whole boyfriend thing, not for too awful long." She roved her gaze over him. "I mean you got a nice body but you got this whole…nobodies home look. Not to mention your too…"

"Soft?" Willow popped up.

"Boring?" Xander questioned.

"Close but…" Cordelia tried to think. Being out of Sunnydale had her slightly off her game for great comebacks; she had fantastic ones for Broody Boy, and Sloppy Kisser Man but none for this guy.

"A Demon-Hunter who doesn't differentiate between good and bad demons that cause former demons a little concern?" Anya rattled off feeling uncomfortable about being this close to the Initiative.

"Not quite." The former May Queen stared oddly at Anya, whom she still didn't trust, she could hardly believe that Xander was dating that freak. But then again he always had a thing for demon chicks. She shrugged her shoulders and let it go.

"Oh, he's a boring loser that can't compete with a guy with over two centuries of experience. Also he's human. Buffy's more into the bad boys, Pike, Angel, Spike…granted Spike was a spell but still." Willow being surprising vicious to the college boy.

Cordelia thought it over for a few moments. "Close enough…and nice insult Will, when you wanna be you can be down right vicious huh?"

"Well I have my moments." She blushed.

_Dorm Hallway_

Kissing Angel had always been an experience a wonderful, fabulous, bone melting experience. Ten minutes ago he told her that his soul is bound, he didn't get any further than that before she smothered him with kisses. Riley never entered her mind after she sensed her lover in the club.

She admitted that she and Riley were heading toward a relationship, but in comparison to Angel's and her love it wouldn't have lived up. She knew her heart belonged and would forever belong to Angel. Didn't matter how many miles away he was it would always be his.

When Angel strutted up to her she was found, a part of her had been missing for months since he left her. She got a small part of that back for that brief five minutes she was in his office but then it was snatched away from her just as quickly when she walked out on him. It was childish but she wanted to be the one to walk away, she wanted to be the one to cause the hurt.

None of that mattered now. Angel was back and she'd never let him leave her again, that's a feeling she wouldn't be able to take for the second time. They had rushed as fast as they could from the Bronze to her dorm room; the college was closer to the Bronze than Angel's mansion.

Buffy didn't take notice of the blatant stares coming from various students on her floor. She's sure they made a complete scene in the hallway with all the stopping and making out against the wall but after months apart neither could or wanted to stop touching each other.

When the couple finally made it to her dorm room Angel set her down on her own legs and stood behind her nuzzling her neck while she tried unsuccessfully for a few minutes to get the key in the lock. Angelus roared inside his head to lay claim on her right there in the hallway but he'd hate to have any of the boys wondering around to get a glimpse of her naked body.

Finally she got her door open, with Angel kissing and cuddling against her neck she couldn't be held responsible for her lack of coordination. As the door swung open he lifted her back into his embrace and carried her into the room shutting the door with his foot. For the next two hours all that was heard from the dorm room were growls, moans, screams, and names.

_Four Hours Later_

Close to one in the morning Buffy and Angel completed sated, for now, talk. "You're never leaving again." She simply told him. "No way in Hell." Her arm squeezed him tightly around his waist, afraid if she let go he'd be gone and this would all be a dream.

"Never again." He promised. Angel refused to cause that kind of hurt again, they'd find a way to make it all work.

"What about Angel Investigations?" Buffy was afraid to hope that he'd never leave. If he had any reservations she'd chain him to the bed until he changed his mind. He's a vampire he could stay alive on blood and sex for a long time, it could work.

"I'll move AI here." He kissed her sweaty forehead. "After all they can't have Angel Investigations without me." He smirked.

"So you really are staying?"

"Yes beloved, I am."

The End


End file.
